Johannes vermeer art style

The most intriguing link is that which lies latent in two paintings by Vermeer. In and , a man in his late thirties posed for the painter as he worked on two seemingly associated pictures with scientific themes. These were Vermeer's only two paintings—at least the only two to survive—with solitary male figures as their protagonists; today the pictures are called The Astronomer and The Geographer , though the titles have varied in the past.

Although the astronomer has no telescope, he is shown touching a celestial globe, and the "Geographer" holds a pair of compasses or dividers and has a terrestrial globe nearby; both men have books to band. Indeed, a slightly idealized air permeates the pictures, which were probably commissioned work and thus balanced uneasily between the needs of client and painter.

Some of the professional equipment may have been borrowed, including the cross-staff that hangs in deep shadow from the centre post of the window frame in The Geographer ; such a staff could be used to measure heights the height of the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk , for instance or the angle of elevation of the sun.

Johannes vermeer metropolitan museum of art

The date of now seen on The Geographer isn't original, though it is thought to reflect the date the picture was painted. That year, , happens to be when Antonie van Leeuwenhoek qualified as a landmeter or surveyor. The model in both pictures appears to be the same man fig. He has a large, long, straight nose and full lips. Moreover, although there are differences in detail between the rooms the two scientists inhabit a section of stained-glass window in one and not in the other; the table carpets; a curtain moved from one side of the casement to the other—the actual room seems to be the same, with the same corner cupboard.

The globes in the paintings, one celestial, one terrestrial, were a pair marketed by Jodocus Hondius in The book lying in front of the astronomer fig. Moses was described in the Acts of the Apostles as "learned in all the wisdom of Egypt"—a body of wisdom that would have included astronomy—and was also considered to be "the oldest geographer," because of his leadership of the Hebrews during their travels in exile.

As we have seen for some contemporaries, the United Provinces were the new Israel, the promised land. Did Vermeer paint this Finding of Moses?